Intended similarity or co-incidence?

Obviously none of these people are equipped to handle his grief when it’s like this, and them deciding to stick with him and make sure he’s not alone is nice, but the clearly ‘we’re here for you’ actions don’t jive with their ‘we’re ignoring you’ conversation. The contrast I think is good, there’s a lack of ideas how to engage with E-Merl, but all of them are at this point experienced enough to know that attempting to be something they aren’t isn’t a good move either.

On one level, mangling Iwatani and Syr’Nj’s names and “My friends could be your friends” is just goofy fun for our inner five-year-olds, sure. On another, it feels like good-natured poking fun at our own writing. On yet another, there’s a little exposition mixed in, as E-Merl provides the official reason these four have been assigned to this gig.

But on another…the prior E-Merl scene already established his drinking as A Problem, and I wouldn’t conclude that the readers are now supposed to regard it as harmless just because he’s happy and not bothering anyone else at the moment. It’s a pretty safe bet that we wanted you to care about ALL our long-running characters’ welfare, all the time!

Honestly, it’s probably a worse sign for E-Merl that he’s still drinking like this even after Iwatani held out some hope that he might know a guy with a resurrection spell. Does he know, on some level, that his sober self might not be as hopeful about this as his drunk self is, and that’s why he’s still ALWAYS DRINKING? If so, ouch. And that doesn’t even get into the fact that he’s drunk while he’s casting fireballs. Kobolds are clearly the lowest-level opponents that Arkerra has to offer, but still, the physical risks he’s taking here are disquieting when you think about them. It’s not like he’s just risking his own skin here, either. Syr’Nj will, eventually, call him out for that one.

The jug is cartoony, sure (we used a similar one for Frigg in a similar context), but it’s also appropriate to the setting in a way other recognizable containers would not be. And it’s our shorthand way of confirming that E-Merl isn’t just enjoying the aftereffects of his last bender. His bender is still going on, in the middle of this fight scene.

😬

I feel like if we’d done this one “serious levels only,” it would’ve come off a little too grim, especially so soon after the death of Kaye. The other Peacemakers could’ve provided more humor, of course…but we wanted to show Sundar and WAV working smoothly as part of the team, and Frigg had to be performing impressively for the next part of the plot to make sense.